Sechaba ka’Nkosi
Intense pressure from the government and less enthusiasm for mass action are believed to be behind the Congress of South African Trade Unions’s (Cosatu) sudden change of attitiude on the Basic Conditions of Employment Bill this week, and a possible settlement before the Bill is tabled in Parliament next week.
Cosatu’s woes began when the National Council of Trade Unions (Nactu) snubbed its two-day strike set for next week and instead threw its weight behind the government’s revised proposal, leaving Cosatu the only opposing voice among union federations.
This, coupled with the Ministry of Labour’s determination to go ahead with the Bill, whether Cosatu supported it or not, is said to have convinced Cosatu that the Bill in its current form was the best the federation could expect.
Labour department officials have been angered by what they perceive to be Cosatu’s arrogant stance, and business’s apparent shift to the right. “We have arrested a privilege for millions of unorganised and vulnerable workers because of a lack of maturity among social partners. At the end of the day the government will be judged not on the number of hours it spends negotiating with interested parties, but on the extent to which it delivers to those previously excluded from benefits such as labour provisions,” says a departmental official.
One attitude adopted by the department was that the Bill would be implemented in phases as soon as it was promulgated. Unresolved areas would be chanelled to a proposed Employment Conditions Commission and would take months or even years to settle.
Cosatu deputy general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi confirmed that the federation has agreed to the partial implementation of the Bill. Vavi said there were areas where there is complete agreement within the alliance, and others where the parties agreed to differ.
“There were trade-offs between the parties on most issues and we did make compromises ourselves. For us the important thing is to have the Bill passed by Parliament this year and promulgated by May or June next year. Unresolved areas will be negotiated at a different forum.”
Director General Sipho Pityana had earlier told the Mail & Guardian the department was worried that delaying the implementation of the Bill would set a bad precedent on two other outstanding Bills – the Skills Development and Employment Equity Bills. Pityana says if the National Economic Development and Labour Council (Nedlac) process fails to reach consensus on issues, social partners would think there is no way forward.
“In the final analysis the Nedlac Act states that if parties can’t reach a settlement on a certain issue, each of them reserves a right to pursue its programme through other avenues. In this regard the government had no choice but to go ahead with parliamentary processes.”
Pityana says the final law would not be easy to implement as a whole because the relevant institutions have not yet been set up to enhance the Bill.
The road to a near settlement began in earnest this week when an urgent meeting of the alliance secretariat was convened, followed by a meeting of Cosatu affiliate general secretaries to derive a strategy for the federation, and the Cape Town meeting on Tuesday this week where the settlement was brokered by Deputy President Thabo Mbeki. The meeting agreed on a two- person task team comprising Vavi and Minister of Labour Tito Mboweni to put the final touches to outstanding matters.
Mbeki’s diplomacy is believed to have prevailed over the ministry’s determination to go ahead with or without Cosatu, and the federation’s insistence that unless its demands were met as a package, there would be no settlement. Although the details of the meeting are being kept close to the African National Congress’s and Cosatu’s chest, the results are the federation’s suspension of its two-day general strike next week and willingness to accept trade- offs on core issues. The latest deal is believed to centre mainly on hours and variations – two of the four outstanding demands Cosatu had earlier insisted it would not back down on.
On variations, Vavi hinted at a possible shift from a non-negotiable stance to conditional variations. “We are sufficiently happy with the progress so far and we believe that the Bill can now be tabled with our full blessing.”
Business South Africa representative Adrian du Plessis says business is watching the developments with keen interest. However, until they are fully briefed on the deal, they are not in a position to weigh it up.
“We are not aware of any developments so far. However, we look forward with keen interest to the terms of the agreement.”